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That didn’t take long. Just hours ago news started to break about a potential Kei Kamara move from Sporting KC to Norwich City, and while we noted team and league approval were still pending, it looks like that’s been taken care of, too. Sporting CEO Robb Heineman, in a letter posted to the club’s website, explained the club has agreed to loan their leading scorer to the Canaries through the end of the Premier League season. Norwich also has an option to buy the Sierra Leone international at the end of the loan.

The letter may not reveal any earth-shattering secrets, but it’s still noteworthy. Here’s an MLS CEO taking time to outline to his fan base why his team not only let their leading scorer go but why it’s a good thing.

Possibly the key passage:

Strange as it may seem, we think this gives us the best opportunity to keep Kei long-term. As much as he loves Kansas City, Kei deeply wants to experience the EPL and this is his chance. So we’ve partnered with him to give him the chance to do so for the first 10 games this season. The loan proceeds will allow us to reinvest in our existing young core of players and solidify their futures in the club. In the event Kei is signed by Norwich City, our club would receive a very fair transfer fee that again, we’d use to reinvest in our club. If Kei returns in May, his contract is extended and we will work in earnest to sign him to a deal that keeps him with the club through the end of his career. If we hadn’t have done this, Kei would have left at the end of the year as a “free” player, similar to Roger Espinoza this past year. So the risk we take is allowing him to go for 10 games this year, in hopes of getting him for years to come.

Perhaps if Espinoza hadn’t already left, Heineman wouldn’t have taken the time to outline the club’s though process, but there’s no defensiveness in the subtext. Instead, Heineman’s outlining a policy that acknowledges Major League Soccer realities, one that paints Sporting as a club sympathetic to its players’ aspirations:

One of the frustrating things for fans, but a fact of life, is that our players will have aspirations to play in the top leagues throughout the world – most especially the EPL. If we are to continue on the track of being a well-respected organization for player development, then it will be inevitable that teams will come after our players and that our players will have desires to go test their talents in these top leagues.

Suffice to say, this view has not always been present in Major League Soccer. Among fans, there are still misgivings that MLSappears to be selling more players, but as Heineman notes in the Espinoza example, there is a downside to holding on to players for too long. Like it or not, selling players (and recouping some of your investment) is an economic reality of the soccer world.

It’s a reality that will see Kamara in Norwich through May, by which time Kansas City will know whether they’ll need a replacement. If they do, Sporting gets money from Norwich which will help them replace Kamara in the summer window. If they don’t, they get their leading scorer back.

Cecilio Dominguez and Mateus Uribe each bagged a brace, and Renato Ibarra also scored as the tournament’s top team sauntered into and out of Costa Rica on Wednesday. Club America has been to seven CCL finals, and one every single one.

West Ham United will pay a visit to Dag & Red as part of the latter’s #SaveTheDaggers campaign, and the March 21 date will cost fans between $7 and $21 to see a top flight side at 6,000-seat Victoria Road.

“So please come on down to the Chigwell Construction Stadium for an additional night of football. Bring a friend, or two, or more and we can use the gate takings to help get us back on track,” reads a press release.

Dag & Red was founded in 1992 and climbed as high as League One in 2011, and plays just 2.5 miles from West Ham United’s training ground. Newcastle’s Matt Ritchie and Dwight Gayle are among Dag & Red alums in the Premier League.

It’s a terrific gesture from West Ham, and is even more impressive in the United States where the growing club game is increasingly cutthroat (especially between non-synced leagues).

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AS Roma manager Eusebio Di Francesco absolutely roasted his charges after i Lupi tossed aside a Cenzig Under-inspired lead to fall 2-1 at Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie on Wednesday.

Di Francesco had praise for Edin Dzeko, who assisted Under’s goal, as well as goalkeeper Alisson, but was mostly enraged by his side.

4) “The difference was that in the first half we tried to hurt them while in the second we were looking to hold on – to what? I don’t know.”

— “To what? I don’t know” is hilarious. Di Francesco’s side has posted some serious wins this season, including killing off Chelsea 3-0 at home and coming back from 2-0 to draw the Blues at Stamford Bridge. He doesn’t preach sitting back.

3) “There were far too many schoolboy errors – even by players with a wealth of international experience.”

— Schoolboy errors!

2) “I saw two completely different teams out there today. There were lots of players I should have taken off after we conceded the first goal.”

— Again, one mistake by a number of players on Facundo Ferreyra is enough for Di Francesco. He’s not just happy to be here.

1) “I can’t imagine we’d get arrogant just because we’re winning an important game. It’s not as if Roma are used to reaching the final every year.”

— When you’re willing to essentially rip an entire club’s history — Roma’s been to just two UCL quarterfinals since losing the final to Liverpool in 1984 — you’re putting your footprints in new cement.

Salzburg’s two away goals in a draw feels like a one-goal lead, and the one-goal matches are especially interesting. In the case of Atalanta, 1-0 to the Serie A side could undo Michy Batshuayi‘s first leg heroics for BVB.